Agenda item

Report No: COU/SE/17/016

Council considered Report No: COU/SE/17/016, which following decisions taken in September 2017 of both Forest Heath District Council (FHDC) and St Edmundsbury Borough Council (SEBC) to submit a business case to the Secretary of State to become a single council for West Suffolk, approval was now sought for a number of technical matters that would be required to be included in any subsequent Order to become a single council.

In due course, the Secretary of State would issue a decision on whether or not he was minded to agree the business case. If he was minded to do so, work would immediately commence on a draft Order to be laid before Parliament to create a new council for West Suffolk.

For the reasons set out in the report, it was important that the Council now considered those matters necessary for inclusion within the draft Order.

Councillor John Griffiths, Leader of the Council, drew relevant issues to the attention of Council, including that the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Secretary of State had been impressed with the work undertaken so far to create a new single council and what FHDC and SEBC Councils were trying to achieve.  Whilst the principle of single council had been agreed, detailed work was now required on the process to create a new council.

Some such matters had been considered by the Future Governance Steering Group (FGSG) and the outcome of its discussions and recommendations on the following were contained in the report:

(a)     proposed transition arrangements through the operation of a Shadow Authority (SA), which would comprise all 72 councillors from both councils;

(b)     the proposed name of the new Council, namely West Suffolk District Council unless the new Council or SA resolved otherwise;

(c)     the status of the new Council, i.e. whether it should be a district or a borough council, and that this was proposed to be considered by the SA; and

(d)     the proposed council size of 64 Members (the full case for this proposal being attached at Appendix 1).

In addition to the above, Council noted that the SA would be responsible for appointing an executive body, the Implementation Executive (IE), which would be responsible for overseeing a smooth transition at the transfer date.  Proposed membership of the IE was outlined in paragraph 4.6 of the report.

Council then noted that some further work was required to be undertaken to fully justify the proposed council size figure of 64 Members, as detailed in paragraphs 7.4 and 7.5. 

A detailed discussion was held and the majority of Members  supported the proposals detailed in the report.  Recognition was given to the work undertaken to date by the FGSG and considered its recommendations outlined above were sensible and practicable for enabling a smooth transition.  It was also acknowledged that whilst they were all supportive of a single council for West Suffolk, the three MPs covering the St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath areas should continue to be lobbied to maintain momentum for creating the single council to be effective from 1 April 2019 (with elections in May 2019).  

On the motion of Councillor John Griffiths, seconded by Councillor Carol Bull and duly carried, it was

RESOLVED:

That:

(1)     should the Secretary of State be minded to create a single council for West Suffolk, the following matters be recommended for inclusion within the Order to create the new Council on 1 April 2019:

(a)     Forest Heath District and St Edmundsbury Borough Councils should transition via the means of a Shadow Authority, which will comprise all 72 councillors from both councils;

(b)     the Shadow Authority should be required to form an implementation executive, to include both the Leaders and at least three further councillors from each of Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury councils;

(c)     the name of the new Council should be West Suffolk District Council until such time as the Council, or Shadow Council, may resolve otherwise;

(d)     the Shadow Authority should have equivalent powers granted to authorities by virtue of s.245(4) to apply for Borough Status;

(e)     the proposed Council Size for West Suffolk District Council of 64 members, and the route for determining the final Council Size case, as set out in paragraphs 7.4 and 7.5 of Report No: COU/SE/17/016, should be endorsed;

(2)     St Edmundsbury Borough Council recognises that both itself, and Forest Heath District Council, will have a duty to co-operate with the Shadow Authority;  and

(3)     it be noted that, during the Secretary of State’s consultation, the Leader of the Council will respond to confirm the Council’s firm commitment to supporting the creation of a new single council for West Suffolk. 

(Councillor Patrick Chung joined the meeting during the consideration of this item.)